Industrial gases specialist Messer has put a new production plant into operation in El Morell (Tarragona, Spain). The company has invested €42 million in its Spanish subsidiary's new plant. Messer is massively expanding its capacities in Europe and Asia: "Over the period to 2010, we are investing a total of around €700 million in gas production, mostly in the context of long-term customer contracts," explains Stefan Messer, owner and CEO of the family business. The new air separation plant, one of the largest in Spain, is connected to its own 90-kilometre long pipeline network that supplies the leading chemical and pe­trochemical companies at the Tarragona industrial complex. The plant has a daily production capacity of 550 tons of oxygen, 900 tons of nitrogen and 26 tons of argon. Messer Ibérica operates a gas cylinder filling plant in Vilaseca, the only one in Spain that uses 300-bar technology. In a few months, another filling plant is due to go into operation in the province of Alicante.
The gases produced by Messer are used in almost 300 different applications, including in the medical sector. Messer has also received a license from the Spanish health authority to produce medical gases at the new plant. This will enable the company to increase supplies of these products and widen its customer base primarily in Catalonia.